Russia to lose control of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, says Ukrainian official

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia will not be able to keep the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in eastern Ukraine under its control as its forces are being pushed closer to the border, a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said early on Monday.

"The Russian military will retreat from Zaporizhzhia NPP (nuclear power plant), as their line of defense is being gradually pushed away towards the borders of Russia. When Russia seized Crimea, all the international representative offices gave up and said: 'Well, okay.' Now, such a story won't cut it," Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview aired by the Kyiv-based television channel Freedom.

The Ukrinform news agency also quoted Podolyak saying that the world openly declared Russia's atomic energy company Rosatom to have no legal jurisdiction over the Zaporizhzhia plant and that the facility is solely Ukrainian.

The statement comes as four Ukrainian nuclear plants, including the one in Zaporizhzhia, lost power due to a decrease in frequency in Ukraine's energy system following Russian strikes in multiple regions of the country last Wednesday.

"Emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, South Ukrainian, and Khmelnytsky NPPs, as a result of which all power units were automatically disconnected," Ukraine's national nuclear energy company Energoatom declared on Telegram.

The company also said the Zaporizhzhia plant had been cut off from its external power supply.

"The station went into full blackout mode. All diesel generators are in operation. The radiation background at the Zaporizhzhia NPP site remains normal."

The plant, located in southeastern Ukraine, has been under Russian control since March, early into Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, one of the world's largest, generated 20% of Ukraine's electricity before the war started on Feb. 24.